It’s time for plain speak. Another day of yet another peak of Covid-positive cases, another spate of reports about the plight of migrant workers on the roads and inside trucks, another day in office for imperious Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman bulldozing her way through hard questions about the economy that can no longer be set aside. Two months into this unprecedented health and economic crisis, it is time to assess the Narendra Modi government’s response to this disaster.

Let us not be unfair to the government. I have supported Prime Minister Modi when he first announced the lockdown, while noting that its preparation, timing and communication left much to be desired. The PM was decisive when a hard call had to be taken. Indecision or further delay could have landed us in a worse state than we are. In retrospect, we now know that our response was already delayed, but it would be unfair to indict the government on that basis. Global knowledge and awareness at that time did not warrant such a response. On balance, we reacted faster than most other countries.

It would also be unfair to blame the Modi government for all the mess that we face today. A largely unanticipated pandemic is bound to create havoc, even in the best of places. It is bound to be worse in a country like India, given the weak public health fundamentals and fragile response systems. An indictment of the Modi government must be careful about limiting itself to what could have been anticipated, what could have been achieved in our conditions. And it must leave room for genuine mistakes. Faced with a crisis of this kind, the best of leaders with the purest intentions will make erroneous calls. They must be criticised, but not indicted for bona fide errors of judgement.

Sadly, even after making all these allowances, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Narendra Modi government has failed India in its hour of need. The government has been clueless about controlling the health crisis, incompetent in handling its economic consequence and insensitive in dealing with the humanitarian crisis.

A failing health model

Let us begin with the health crisis. We must not blame PM Modi for his early decisions in pandemic management. We cannot indict him for erring on the side of caution because he heard (as all global leaders did) conflicting forecasts about the progress of the pandemic. But we must ask some questions nevertheless: why did the government not listen to alternative voices about more testing at an early stage? Why did the PM not try to learn from and replicate the Kerala model? Did he allow political envy to trump national interest? Why did he not come down heavily against his supporters trying to communalise the pandemic? Once it became clear that thelockdown was not ‘breaking the chain’ or flattening the curve, why did he persist with the lockdown as the sole remedy? Did he allow his ego and self-image to trump rational course correction? And finally, why is no senior functionary (not even a minister, let alone the head of the government, as is the norm in many countries) responding to the media’s questions on the pandemic? What is the future strategy? Is there something that the government wishes to hide?

All these questions do not admit of easy answers and leave the country with the impression of a government that is lost but does not know how to admit it or ask for help.

Misplaced economic priorities

On the economic front, let us allow for the fiscal constraints that the government faces at this moment, even though it is largely responsible for this situation due to untimely waiver to corporates and inflation of revenue projections. Still, we must ask why has the Modi government not done anything to stimulate demand (despite pleas from every economist who matters)? Why the continuous pumping of liquidity despite the fact that banks have failed to use the extra liquidity made available in March? Why has the government not addressed what the industrialists, businessmen, farmers and labourers were actually asking for? Why has the government made no attempt to raise additional revenue (despite many sensible suggestions) to meet this crisis? Why use this crisis to push through a number of policy changes on labour law, agriculture, environment and investment that have nothing to do with the cause or solution to the current crisis? And, why not share the real economic situation with the country? Why dress up the “packages”, that too in such amateurish ways, so as to somehow match the magical 20-lakh crore figure?

These questions lead us to a sad answer: the economic response of the fifth-largest economy facing its worst recession and joblessness is being shaped by a bunch of too-clever-by-half economists and packaged by an ignorant and arrogant political leadership. More than saving the economy, the leaders are focused on saving themselves and their wealthy friends.

Humanitarian crisis

Finally, let’s turn to the Modi government’s handling of the humanitarian crisis made visible by the migrant workers who have taken to the streets. Again, let us grant that given our size and deep inequalities, some degree of distress was inevitable. But we must ask: Did the government even try to anticipate this distress and plan to alleviate it when announcing the lockdown? Why was the government surprised by the scale of the problem of the migrants (eight crore, as Sitharaman admitted in her press conference)?

Why were there no special arrangements for food and income of the stranded workers for the first 50 days of the lockdown? What else did the government expect jobless, food-less and hopeless workers to do, except walk back? Why do we not get a report of this kind from any other country in the world, even African countries much poorer than us? And once the government discovered, within the first week of the lockdown, the plight of the migrant workers, what did it do to address the crisis, except law and order advisories?

Why was the decision to start Shramik trains delayed so much and taken when it was actually riskier? Why the insistence on the fares for distress evacuation? Why did it take the Ministry of Home Affairs six weeks to issue a simple advisory about humanitarian support to the migrants on the road?

Insensitive would be too mild a word to characterise this shameful handling of the worst national-level humanitarian crisis. To call the Modi government heartless displays credulity. As India goes for a free fall, the top political functionaries are focused on political intrigue, blame-game and public relations. India’s worst health, economic and humanitarian crisis is being handled by undoubtedly the most callous and perhaps the most incompetent government.

The author is the national president of Swaraj India. Views are personal.

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115 COMMENTS

Nothing wrong with policy next layer of implementation consist of FILE warriors who do not move beyond files.. send this high BMI over weight Baboo to villages and force them to stay once a week in the company of mosquitoes

Yadav is a jholachhap leftist or so called socialist, whose intent is to criticize PM Modi but can’t give any solution to any problem.
He is an escapist thrown out of AAP. His reasonings are irrelevant. He is simply bookish
Mr. Shekhar Gupta is also adverse to Modi govt so he engaged such Rubbish & irrelevant psuedo intellectual.

To summarize all the comments, we’re doomed. Either the hate will end us, or the bad politics and apathy. In any case, doom is impending. I’ve been optimistic before, I can’t anymore, there is no hope unless something cataclysmic hits india and resets everything. It’s over for now, and for the foreseeable future.

I have just read these opinion and only say these that most people do not realise or comprehand weather its the west or east but in actual reality to maintain order is very difficult when you have 1.3 billion people of diverse ethnicity with various religious beliefs opposition parties throwing spanners in the works, for example look at united kingdom population 70 million with a robust health system has failed in many areas so has majority of countries around the world! all i say is that looking at all scenarios I would rather be in Indaa then anywhere else. The migrant crisis was created by people who did not follow what the goverment was saying. It was everyones duty employers of migrant workers should have assisted them but as usual financial gains, losses and personal status and ambitions was more important then country and human lives. India is currently not only fighting covid19 but terrorist, land disputes with Pakistan, China, Nepal etc . The west and China does not want India to succeed and we have people in our country who are brainwashed by western propaganda. We have come a long way since independence in 1947 and have followed our achievements and failures but over the last few years our reputation and standing in the world has increased under Modij. In this difficult times we should all unite by putting our political and personal issues aside. Jai hind a long standing patriot and son of Bharat mata.

Mr Modiji has handled the situation very well, no body would have done better. When whole world appreciates Modiji on basis of falttening the curve which is the best strategy so far, unfortunate that people waste time in bad comments retrospectively. We are fortunate that such people dont have opportunity as advisor to the Government

Mr Modiji has handled the situation very well, no body would have done better. When whole world appreciates Modiji on basis of falttening the curve which is the best strategy so far, unfortunate that people waste time in bad comments retrospectively. We are fortunate that such people dont have opportunity as advisor to the Government. Whatever happens, it happens for best.

Your hatred for PM Narendra Modi is so intense that you see only negative aspects in whatever he does. This is precisely why people do not take you seriously. From day one, Modi has been asking people to stay where they are and trains could not be started too early for fear of uncontrollable infection. I am wasting my time trying to explain to you as you are not even remotely connected with logic.

Who is this Yogendra Yadav ? Such biased political insinuations is a staple from people and organisations, that cannot digest good work that is being done inspite of the extreme circumstances. Maybe they are so fearful of being rendered irrelevant. That is why the hollow shrieks. The print has an existential problem.

True to his nature, Mr Yadav has been very balanced in his opinion. I fully agree that the Modi cannot be faulted on the implementation in MArch 2020 but he could have been a little more empathetic to the migrants issue as well as in the release of direct transfer to the needy. But the migrants issue is not the problem of Modi Govt alone. It is the collective problem of the sates Govt as well as the private sector who employs these labourers and then abandons them when they are not required. In a pandemic crisis, where no one had a clear idea (and they still dont do,) of how the disease will pan out, why is there no collective responsibility to solve this issue. Why is Mr Yadav also Modi bashing when he should actually contribute and collaborate with everyone at this need of the hour?

That YY wants PM to copy Kerala model of covid fighting shows his intellect is poor and his intent is to malign Modi… Each and every parameter pertaining to Kerala is different when compared to other states… For that matter each state is unique by itself…. Secondly Health is a state subject… Hope he has considered that… Next is the migrant issue… Why haven’t the states, the political parties, the stinking Rich industrialists, builders etc etc not cared for these workers… If only the cared with two months salaries, the crisis could have been averted… As far as economy is considered, the Covid crisis has only snowballed into the existing problems… So the blame goes to the govt…

Asking people to ring bells at 5pm and to switch off lights from 9pm for 9 minutes — these two instructions seem to indicate the hidden agenda of trying to control the behaviour of the masses. Certain publicity images have been taken out of the Orwell novel 1984. This government has played with the trust of millions of people like us.

Firstly Government is busy in Delhi elections, riots in Delhi, namaste trump, horse trading in Madhya Pradesh. People bring corona through airlines. Airlines are not thoroughly checked. Then un planned lock down, now lifting of lockdown when cases increased to 1 lacs. I never understand why lockdown for even 500 cases and now lifted when cases are above 1 lacs. Migrant on roads. Buses are there. Petrol price slashed. Even then migrant workers works thousands KM. I don’t know why.
No credibility, no one accountable, if questions raised then answers are congress is corrupt, Rahul is pappu, Sonia is Italian. Priyanka is pappi.
Nation admit Congress is corrupt, Rahul is pappu. And other stuff regarding Congress.
But show your progress report of 6 years. We voted this Government because congress is inefficient.
What you have done must be your answer. Don’t hid behind inefficiency of congress.

Actually the Print media consists of many former NDTV reporters who,as the country knows are excellent opposers of the NDA Government and hence they are promoting this type of articles and speechs.Modiji is working very hard for the citizens of India and is doing his level best.

Wow , I am impressed you used your brains while writing .Mr our economy was falling for the last 5 years and no one was there to question the government or Modi .Now luckily Mr Modi got an invisible reason to put all blames on .My goodness still people are following him blindly .May god save this country .

Yogendra Yadav , can you look beyond Modi? Can you look beyond Kerala Model? Do you know apart from Kerala which other state has done excellent containment measures with brilliant administrative measures? Do you know which CM has given appointment of around 1600 medical doctors in one day to fight COVID 19 ?
Clean you glass which is fully covered with dirt. Then you can see clearer picture around you.
Try to come out of of Cat Syndrome. There are also wiser people than your wisdom. People around you also can also judge you on your work of foggy journalism.
Neither you could do justice to your noble profession nor to your first political affiliation AAP not to the society. Try to do some good work before the young generation will forget you. Last but not the least- Dont forget the great Darwin’s theory.

Mr YY already kicked out from parent party AAP. Now pointing out the PM. Mr YY just run your own party.

It is very easy to point out any one who is doing his job religiously. Do u have any solutions to the problems in the country like India. If you are so mature, you should submit your suggestions, when lock down 1.0 was imposed.

I wish labour laws would have changed long ago to hire and fire people. At least it would have made all these workers as part of organised skills employed by MSMEs rather than as daily workers. I know workers working for 29 plus years but are still not directly employed. This is the difficulty for the government to pay these workers wages directly if companies refused to pay them. Govt could have paid them some part of wages so that they do not have to shift from urban centers to villages.

Mr. Modi,
You did nice job upto you put lockdown. After lockdown police department was behaving vary badly with people. To put hand on any citizen of india is same to PM because without your order no one should these kind of nasty job. I saw on TV the way policeman was hitting very badly to workers of india. Do not forget all Indians are your voters. Make low that in any situation police do not have right to beat people of india. Police can handover to court & court should decide punishment not uneducated police.
Same on government in these country uneducated police decide punishment without listening to plaintiffs.

Modi govt is not to be blamed for today’s situation. The first two lockdown were very much successful, and total In control. One can see the no of cases at end of lockdown 2 and compare with lockdown 3 end. Upto 2nd lockdown Modi govt was totally involved , which some states did not like, and wanted themselves to control the situation rather than Central Govt. Due to this central govt had to send it teams to analyse things to States, and based on the finding decentralized powers to state to manage affairs. Today’s numbers are the result of respective States handling the situation. Given the free hand to States, why they could not control the pandemic. Take example of Kerala, how disciplined approach towards controlling the spread. Compare it with Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamilnadu, all were in same boat till lockdown 2, Now see where is Kerala, very much down in the leading states list. Did modi govt provoked Migrant labour, no it’s a created one to establish states own politics.
Hence, summing up, it’s failure of respective state govt, for current status and spread.

The coronavirus pandemic could have been handled better by reviewing the worldwide infection data published by Worldometer daily. It clearly shows that the underdeveloped world has 50 to 1000 times fewer infections than the developed world. Vietnam has about 1800 time fewer infections per million people than the USA. It should be the other way round. After digging deeply into the subject matter and scientific papers, reports, ad hoc evidences, I concluded, is due to more natural ventilation in the underdeveloped world but they don’t seem to know their advantage except Vietnam which has zero deaths compared to over hundred thousand in the USA. A vietnamese professional told me they enforce natural ventilation everywhere. The USA has closed buildings with HVAC and they spread virus within the building. I wrote a 7 page report with analysis and references and tried to send it to US authorities but no humans read the messages or emails and send a computerized reply telling me how to stay safe and how I can get small business loan. It is pathetic.
I tried to write to Modi and it was even worse. He has left the suggestions handling to his minions who don’t care. With no way to filter out the thousands of junk messages, the minions cannot keep up. Sad! India can do the same thing Vietnam does and even open up the economy.

Dear Yogendraji, Could you please precisely elaborate what is in your mind the best measures to control and wipe off this pandemic? According to me, I am currently outside the country and from my perception Government of India is doing excellent job so far! I have seen a line in your article appreciating the Kerala Model with proud! Have you done a proper statistics comparison between the states? If then you won’t mention this in your article. There are many states like Orissa, Goa are performing better than Kerala. The uniqnes in the their tracking process is that they are preparing a route map of the affected person which is also most of the cases the details are incomplete and 40-70% failure. According to me in Kerala, the government is keen to focus on their PR work on their anti COVID activities. It is pretty clear that whatever they are doing is as per the ICMR regulations. Also, the population and density in Kerala is less compare to other metro cities and states in India. So, it is absolutely less chance for spreading of the virus! So while writing such articles understand the facts and go through the statistics on at least how many tests have been carried out so far and compare the results!

Sorry Prime Minister Modi did not fail, but successfully guided the country through a tragic transit phase of the country. We are proud of him, the world is proud of him. India is better placed economically on real valuable resources and not in fake black money economy. People are better off and have found respect around the world. I didn’t read this article except the headlines, it was such a false statement that I felt pity on this author who wants recognised on misleading news. I pity this writer sorry for him.

Absolutely agreed with you sir. Government has completely messed up with migrants labourer. While case load was low ,they were not allowed to move. Now as case load spiralling they were let loose. No assistance from government even when they were walking hundreds of miles. It has stigmatized India.

YY, do you know why nobody takes your views seriously? Because, no matter what Modi does, you’d criticize him. For example, if PM had organized trains earlier, it would inevitably have increased the virus spread and you would have come down heavily on him.
People realize that the govt is sincere, it is doing its best, but yes, there could be slip-ups here and there. So what? It is far, far better than what you arm chair intellectuals, with two left limbs, do if you were in-charge.

Dont be so heartless, have some empathy for the poor workers, who have worked hard for their living, so that they and their families can have a better future. They are not beggars. It is their hard work that has made Indian Cities grow, factories function , and built us the roads and infrastructure! Dont they deserve to be treated like humans? Should they not go home with some dignity? They are hungry, worried about their families, their earnings depleted and are totally in the dark as to what the next day will bring them..

So you say that starting the trains later was better that starting it earlier.? Do you even realise what’s going on in our country at the moment..? Labour’s are walking on the roads, starving to death, even they are human beings. I am from Kerala, a state that’s not ruled by your stupid BJP government. Look at our results, how could we track this down, and control the situation.? Narendra modi spent 3000cr INR on a statue of no use, so why not on the helpless people.? These are the people those who voted for him, bjp came in power because of people like this, when it’s time to help them back where is BJP.? Why can’t he arrange food for these labourers.? What in the hell is he doing with all these 20 lakh cr..?. Wake up from your wonderland, take a look at the reality, last to last ramzan they banned beef, CAA and NRC, he sold almost everything to foreign companies like BP etc., Railway, his people spread religious hatred, fake attacks, recent attacks on muslims in our capital New – Delhi, JNU students.. and soo on. What have they done, look at our country, they are gonna destroy oru land. They don’t value democracy, equality and don’t give a shit to our fundamental rights. What are they good in,? Spreading hatred, communal riots, hate speech, breaking laws.? What else..? And remember that bank defaulters..? Which includes nirav modi, Vijay mallya and many bjp friends. A total of 68,607 cr INR worth of scam, and these all happened in between 2014 to 2019. Who are these people, when this issue was questioned in parliament our finance minister didn’t even answer, what good did they do for our country.? You bjp fools don’t understand the game these people are playing, if you did understand you wouldn’t have chosen this party. Why do kerala oppose bjp.? We are the most literate state in India with almost 94% literacy rate. So you think that all people in kerala are crazy.? Wake up India., I feel pity on these people who support BJP, how hard is it for you people to understand things.? What we all can do is hope and do our part, because this BJP govt is only gonna make things harder in our lifes.
Thank you.! And .l. bjp.

The Inter-state Migrant Workmen Act 1979, being there on the statute book for the last over 40 years, seeks to address the welfare aspects of the migrant workmen in the host state., with a variety of measures. I am sure the implementation of the laudable provisions of this progressive piece of law would have helped very significantly the migrant workers in mitigating their unforseen hardships. Not sure as why the learned author has skipped discussion of this law altogether.

No, the world is NOT appreciating Modi. It’s been a horrible tragedy in India. I was there for demonitisation, where we saw a similar story. Modi is full of his own importance and publicity slogans.. There is nothing genuine or humanitarian about this man.

Are u using a fake acc, lol
Why don’t you shift to your own country then
Don’t say that arrangements are not made
If u feel your country is doing better than leave India(even though india has large population but lesser cases)
I have known foreigners feeling safe in India than Ameriac, etc
So better STFU

Are u using a fake acc, lol
Why don’t you shift to your own country then
Don’t say that arrangements are not made
If u feel your country is doing better than leave India(even though india has large population but lesser cases)
I have known foreigners feeling safe in India than America , etc

Where do you get your weed from Sandy? You are either blind or ignorant. And obviously you have understood squat about demo (dont know why you bring that here)
The Modi government could definitely have handled this crisis better. There are always better ways to do things – once you have done it.
Second – it was most of the state governments that made a mess of things and tried their best to make this a failure. Do some more research. Deep thinking. You will see it plain and clear.

The brutal majority of the govt, putting one single leader on the top, combined with an ineffective self seeking opposition, aided by almost medieval social thoughts of the ruling party has led to this ‘Nero fiddles as Rome burns situation. Corona is but a twisted double helix chain of molecules, and it’s apparent simplicity makes it invincible. We are in for hard times.We can only brace ourselves for a war of attrition.

Yogendra Yadav keeps going on a tirade against the Narendra Modi government, without providing any concrete solutions to what can actually be done to alleviate the problems he mentions. Like the other self-proclaimed intellectuals in the country, Yadav too has displayed his extraordinary vacuity by resorting to the tried-and-tested bromides about communalisation and political envy.

I completely agree with Querty on his view of Kerala. Yadav has broken all limits of fatuity with his opinion that the Kerala model should have been replicated to the rest of India. Kerala is a state that invested heavily in healthcare early on after the formation of the state, not to mention the headstart Keralites received thanks to the benovelence and vision of the erstwhile rulers who reigned in Pre-independence Kerala.
The Print really needs to up its standard when it comes to selecting columnists, if it wants to live up to its reputation of being an unbiased journalistic agency.

YY or for that matter, none of the opposition care about the corona or migrant Labour. What they want is hard money in the hands of the poor when lockdown was in full swing and transport was completely shut down and when special trains were run, different state governments behaved recklessly. Dumping all perils on the head of the PM is preposterous

Who brought a jorn-a-list like yogendra yadav??
Let he be made chief health advisor and chief economic advisor. But before this(if it also happens in dreams) someone let him know that , a pm cannot alone control the situation , its fellow indians like yongendarr who think that we must rome around and the government will control the covid situation.

The fact being more are people aware more the situation being controlled.
Hope the print reviews the articles before being published , in future.

Yogendra Yadav is one of the sanest and analytical voices in India. The government bungled thoroughly in its response to the pandemic. Not only was it caught napping, it failed in anticipating the problems arising out the long lockdown. The migrant crisis and the resultant enormous suffering is a self inflicted wound. Thank you Print for managing a balance between opposing views.

I think people are loosing a sense of tolerance who is only attempting to highlight shortcomings. If the virus has become normal and we have to live with it and therefiore lockdown is being lifted in caliberated manner, when we were living with virus before lockdown, in a calibrated manner we could have continued to work in the present manner with all precautions with strength of 30 to 50% with total ban on large gathering . Atleast we could have saved total collapse of economy.

I hope the comments above may have given this writer (and many others like him) what exactly is the issue with Pradhan Sevak and his supporters. If you don’t acknowledge your mistakes and do not think that any course correction is needed how can you expect any outcome change? It is like beating your head against a wall. Everything is Rahul Gandhi’s mistake – he did not warn in advance that coronavirus is coming, he did not suggest seeding migrants’ accounts with cash so that they comply with lockdown and he did not suggest increasing testing capabilities. Modi did just fine.

Agreed , it is Rahul Gandhi’s fault .Our honourabld P.M. is urging us to be “Aatmnirbhar” though he himself is dependent on fake pillars , but he is doing everything very efficiently and world is appreciating him .So what if people are dying coz of hunger or walking for miles.So what if the liquor shops were opened and many women committed suicide .So what if we all have become senseless.Mr Modi is doing his best

A vast country like India with huge population has many different sorts of problems.It is not possible for a govt.to solve these overnight or so early and easily.The central govt had been repeatedly discussing to meet the situation with the state govts. It is the duty of all incl the citizens of the country to come forward and cooperate to solve all the problems. Only blaming/criticising without giving any positive/constructive solution is not welcome.

Government was aware from December whats is coming. They could ignore RGs caution in February. Of course our country is big and thats why we have to prepare to face worse. Some basic measures , using mask, controlling large gathering, hand washing, physical distancing etc.

Rightly said , always criticism is not welcomed but I wonder why the central govt always found busy in criticizing opposition for the present things.Past is gone and from 2014 we are under one of the most sensitive govt without any corruption or unethical politics , then why the rupee is falling down against dollar since 2014 .Why number of unemployed persons in increasing day by day (obviously many are unemployable but then also ).Everyone knows that nothing can be overcome in a day but we cannot be ignorant towards the insensitive responses of the government
Yes centre is trying but not upto its caliber and if people will give solution to those fools then why did they called themselves fit for governing .If they cannot find a solution then they should accept that they are incapable .

I am pleasently surprised that even Yogendra Yadav can be occasionally fair in his criticisms. I would confine myself the problem of so-called migrant workers. There are labour departments in both the center. They ought to know what are the classes of labourers working in India for a living. Everyone knows about organised labour and agricultural labourers. But, until Covid 19 crisis, it looks like that the migrant labourers who come to urban aggolmeration with the hope of better earnings than in rural area were a huge invisible mass. Government seemed to be unaware of their existence, until they gathered in lakhs of numbers in Delhi metro station, or Bandra station in Mumbai, and clogged the highways by walking. On 24th March night when Modi spoke, he advised people of India to stay wherever they are. It never occurred to him that crores of people were stayiing away from their homes in the cities, without a place to call their home. On that day, when instructing the public to “stay wherever they were”, he ought to have promised them food, shelter and some money. By that time, all the schools and colleges had closed for pre-exam period. There was no dearth of place to accommodate them. Sheer ignorance of all the labour departments, labour ministers and the PM lead to this tragedy. What was the remedy found? Immediate suspension of four IAS officers!

Ohhhh , you are absolutely right he is doing his best by investing thousands of crores for central vista project which is nearly of no importance , he can invest crores on a statue but he cannot find a strong solution for the people’s sufferings .He is just helpless , I pity on him and pity on those who support him .India is waiting for its worst but he is doing whatever he could.

Who ever wrote this artical, how can u blame modi govt but not modi? Whatever he wants to say comes as a script, provided by his fellow bjp mates , because he dont know what to say on mike. In last 57 days our PM only came on mike 5 or six times, look at other countries, SHAME ON NARENDRA MODI, HE WILL ATONE FOR HIS SINS….

I may agree on migrant workers crisis but the rest is all unwanted criticism all the economies are under free fall japan went into recession so Modi just was afraid if lock-down is not extended then more people may die in India social distancing is impossible use brain while writing articles

PM Modi didn’t consult the states before imposing the unthought through lockdown. And forced Delhi and Mumbai and other state cities to take care of migrants’ food and shelter, without the cities having the capacity to do so. Further packing them in shelters, making them use common toilets for 50 days have only resulted in more transmission of the virus. Further the central government didn’t provide funds to the states or make RBI buy state government bonds. Only the central government can monetise the deficits through RBI and states have no control over The RBI. The Federal Reserve of the US government bought bonds of both states and municipalities there and this monetised deficits. Was PM Modi not providing funds to the states because BJP has lost control of a lot of states and wanted to show states’ tackling of the crisis in poor light.

Great. Now if you are convinced go and get elected. Get some decent numbers and then celebrate with your friends in the press. Paper tiger, work on getting people support instead of writing lazy useless articles which carry no value.

If Modi’s governance is so bad, these Modi haters should be happy instead of weeping as it should be easy for Jholabalas to defeat Modi in next election. Instead of wasting readers time, this jholabala should seriously prepare for next election and at least win a seat for him self.

It’s time to speak truth. Undereducated jhollawallas who skipped work to do politics with blessings of congrass have ensured huge corruption continued by not implementing population control measures which gave rise to poverty , and people with political power who caused untold miseries and hunger by ensuring no population control. We have to ensure this jhollawallas who feed on poor people’s miniseries must no longer be able to take charge of discourse which they did under congrass. A nation enslaved under mughals and British and congrass.

Govt. has been trying to stimulate supply side to prop up GDP, first by reducing the corporate tax needlessly. They do not seem to appreciate that it is the demand side which is in a jam. Govt keeps on making efforts to boost up supply. Rather they should have gone in for lowering of GST on mass consumption items , so that money comes in every hand esp of needy.
They had no idea of the looming migrant workers. Govt was busy airlifting Indians from foreign and even sent ships. It is really shocking that then they had gumption to stop workers from returning. How badly imbalanced are we ? Courts are conspicuous by their absence. Total capitulation.
What is being done to formalize the so vast informal labor market ? Why it is like that even after 75 years of Independence. ? No boy knows.

I appreciate the zeal of author in criticizing Modi ji. The misguided leftist will keep on criticizing Modi Ji whether he does good work , no work or bad work. But alas , this is going to be a long term job for people like Yadav. He will be writing hateful articles against Modiji 10-15 years down the lin alsoe , say in 2035 also, and country will be in safer hands of Modi s successor belonging to BJP. If the people of India can perpetuate non -performing , corrupt congress governments for so long, why on earth we can not reward and have best performing BJP governments with national agenda of economic growth, secured borders ,and appeasement of non. Keep on your tirade It will fail. FAIL.

Modi’s monumental failure was in not giving his countrymen any time to at get its essential needs together. For the migrants especially, he and the HM must be held responsible for their plight now. The ‘I am pained’ response which has now become a programmed, emotionless, meaningless response rings so hollow when there is simply no follow up action to alleviate their misery. And lets face it, Amit Shah should be out here, there,, everywhere instead of which he is nowhere! Unfortunately Opposition voices are suppressed, as their plight continues. Now even for people like us, under a fourth lockdown, clearly signalling they just arent prepared.

Dear Shekharji,
I am a subscriber of print. However I am disappointed that you have decided to chose Yogendra Yadav as one of the columnist. He is the same person who has written twisted history in NCERT books. He is the same person who said there would be electoral authoritism in India. This article only criticizes but does not provide any solution. I am not surprized that He was removed by Arvind Kejriwal. I sincerely request you to reconsider your decision as we have subscribed to Print for you not for such people.

I agree with your points on humanitarian crisis. I believe economic arguments can go both ways, i think modi govt is very careful because there is a chance crisis can get worse when doleouts will be essential, until then they want to prevent giving direct cash as most are likely to face extreme hardship but survive.

The part I disagree with is replicating Kerala model. Kerala model is a state model. It can be adopted by any state. Kerala historically has spent a lot on health care. Rest of India has not. So situations are very different. Kerala is also full of small town ships not large ones, making social distancing and stay at home approach more possible. Keralites at wealthier due to money from middle east. Kerala can be commended but it’s conditions are hard to replicate in most of India.

The rest of insinuations about political envy, communalizing are just petty to be arguing about at this stage. Your article is a form of the same and participates in this process.

This is the same PM who is responsible for ongoing persecution of thousands of Christians in India. I am surprised to see people like you having no sympathy nor any consideration towards your fellow brothers in Christ. Here’s the source for you to check out -https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/february-web-only/trump-modi-india-religious-freedom-christian-persecution.html.

Instead you choose to blindly follow this man and turn a blind eye towards all the evil that he causes to your people. You should be ashamed of YOURSELF! Or maybe at least stop calling yourself a CHRISTIAN.

The article you shared skips the accelerate conversion by the christian missionaries that ahs been done throughout India, the persecution is just the byproduct of people being woke enough to know just jump from one train to another

@Anish – Who’s the evil here? In the name of reconversion VHP and RSS are forcing minorities to convert to Hinduism. More than 25000 Christians and Muslims were forced to convert to Hinduism in 2018 alone. CHECK OUT THE SOURCE BELOW-
Source-https://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/ghar-wapsi-vhp-says-reconverted-25000-muslims-christians-in-2018/1746798/

@Shankar – if the above 2 sources weren’t enough, here is the third one. If you still justify these heart-wrenching incidents, then you yourself are part of the problem.
Source -https://evangelicalfocus.com/world/5726/christian-families-beaten-and-threatened-with-death-in-chhattisgarh-india